Working with Lists

Quick reference

• 00:04 In this section, we're going to start out by talking about a very
• 00:07 important part of SharePoint, and that is lists.
• 00:10 And the reason why they're so important is because basically everything that
• 00:15 you're going to come across in SharePoint is some kind of list.
• 00:19 So just for the time being, let's take SharePoint out of the equation and
• 00:24 take a look at a list that you might already be familiar with.
• 00:28 So here I have an Excel spreadsheet, and Excel is used for many,
• 00:32 many different things.
• 00:34 But fundamentally, it helps you manage rows and columns of data.
• 00:39 And this is essentially a list of information.
• 00:42 We have column headings running across the top.
• 00:45 So for this one, this is an employee list.
• 00:48 I have the employee ID, the first name, last name, department, location, and
• 00:52 salary.
• 00:53 Those are my column headers.
• 00:55 And then, underneath I have my records.
• 00:58 And that is a list.
• 01:00 So let's jump into SharePoint now and
• 01:02 take a look at a SharePoint list that I've already created.
• 01:05 So for this, I'm going to go to the Quick Launch menu, and
• 01:09 I've created a few lists in here.
• 01:12 So I'm going to go into the one that says, Training Contacts.
• 01:18 And what you'll see here is an example of a SharePoint list.
• 01:22 And it takes on that similar structure to the Excel spreadsheet.
• 01:26 We have our headers running across the top, attachments, last name, first name,
• 01:31 so on and so forth.
• 01:32 And then underneath we have all of the records.
• 01:35 Let's take a look at another one of my SharePoint lists.
• 01:38 I'm going to open up the Training Tasks List.
• 01:42 Now this list looks very slightly different.
• 01:45 And this is because I am now using the classic experience in SharePoint.
• 01:50 So the interface is a slightly more old school looking.
• 01:54 When you compare it to, for example,
• 01:56 the training contacts list that we were just in, this looks a bit more modern,
• 02:00 a little bit more slick than the training tasks list.
• 02:04 Now they both hold list information,
• 02:06 it's just the way you're viewing it is very slightly different.
• 02:09 And you might be thinking to yourself, well, this is a little bit confusing,
• 02:13 am I going to be Switching between these different views when I'm using SharePoint?
• 02:17 And unfortunately that might very well be the case.
• 02:20 Microsoft is definitely trying to push everybody towards the modern experience,
• 02:25 the newer experience and phase out the classic experience.
• 02:28 Well for the time being, we do have access to both.
• 02:32 And I have my settings set to choose the best one for the page that I'm on.
• 02:37 So it's decided that for my training tasks list,
• 02:40 the classic experience is going to be the best way to view this page.
• 02:44 And that's absolutely fine.
• 02:46 I can see in here that I have another list.
• 02:49 I have my headers running across the top, task name,
• 02:52 due date, assigned to, and then I have my records.
• 02:55 So another example of a list.
• 02:58 Now what about something a bit different?
• 03:00 Let me jump into the event calendar from my quick launch menu.
• 03:05 Now this shows me a calendar and any events that I have coming up.
• 03:10 You might think to yourself, well, this isn't a list, but
• 03:14 in fact it is, it's just been formatted as a calendar.
• 03:18 In fact, I can view all of the items that I have in my calendar as just a big
• 03:23 standard list if I wanted to.
• 03:25 And this is a good moment to point out when you are working in the classic view,
• 03:30 you have ribbons running across the top, so very much standard Microsoft ribbons.
• 03:35 If I click Calendar, there is my calendar ribbon.
• 03:40 And it's from here, if I jump into views, I can change this view to All Events,
• 03:46 and it's going to show me those items in a list.
• 03:49 And again, we have the column headers, title locations, start time, end time.
• 03:55 And then we have our records.
• 03:57 So just because something is formatted as a calendar,
• 04:00 it is still effectively a list in the background in SharePoint.
• 04:04 Now I'm going to switch this back.
• 04:06 So let's go back to list and I'm going to reformat this as a calendar.
• 04:11 So these are the common types of lists that you'll interact with in SharePoint.
• 04:16 And all of these lists are essentially templates.
• 04:19 And which one you choose depends on the type of list that you want to create.
• 04:23 So if I want to create something completely different,
• 04:27 where can I go to access all of my list templates?
• 04:30 Well, let's jump back to home.
• 04:32 And using our menu running across the top,
• 04:35 if we click the drop down next to New, you can see I have an option for List.
• 04:40 So let's click on this.
• 04:41 This is where I can create a blank list.
• 04:44 I can create a list from an Excel spreadsheet, or
• 04:47 I can create a list from an existing list in SharePoint.
• 04:51 And then underneath that I have different list templates that I could possibly use.
• 04:57 And these templates will essentially define what the columns are or
• 05:02 the column headings are depending on the one that you've selected.
• 05:06 Now these particular templates, these modern looking ones are only available
• 05:10 when you're using the modern experience.
• 05:12 So if you are using the classic experience and
• 05:15 even if you are using the modern experience, you can still access these.
• 05:19 You can go to New and all the way down to App.
• 05:24 And this is going to show you a gallery of different tiles and
• 05:28 all of these are lists or libraries.
• 05:30 So you can see here tasks, I might choose this template to create a task list.
• 05:35 I have contacts for contacts lists.
• 05:38 There's my calendar template.
• 05:41 I have an issue tracking list, all different kinds of things in here.
• 05:46 I can even choose to create my own custom list where I can define the column
• 05:50 headings for my list.
• 05:52 So there are lots of different templates available in SharePoint for
• 05:56 you to create lists and store your data.

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